Friends No More
by Gremblin
Summary: Sequel to Friends Forever, They've been in stasis for 60 years, and now that they're out, Buddy and Zac are making a family. But not all is well with them being awakened when Alex get's kidnapped... No Longer Updating
1. Authors note

Disclaimer: I do not own the Incredibles. I can quote entire scenes for them at request, but I do not own them.

As requested by anOinteD4eVa826, I'm going to rack my brain and try to spew out a few chapters for a sequel to "Friends Forever". I have no clue what's going to happen, but eventually (as with what happened with "Friends Forever") things will start to simply come to me.

I apologize for any confusion during the reading of "Friends Forever", I had my little sister read every chapter twice before I would post it and then tell me things that were confusing so that I could clear them up. At one time I would have two or more chapters that needed to be read, formatted, uploaded, reformatted, spell checked, and then posted.

As to your comments Anointed, yes it was discouraging not getting any reviews during the typing of "Friends Forever", but I just told myself that I wasn't getting any because the people reading it were just too dumbfounded to review, it was that good. No, I don't have a modesty problem, it's simply what I told myself so that I would keep writing it for the few who were reading it.

Please hang tight for this story, so far all I have is a few ideas and a title floating around the large empty void that is my current imagination, ideas that I have yet to be able to piece together into a story. As was previously said, I'll most likely start typing and things will just add up and come to me as I type it.

Luv ya,

§¤ Gremblin ¤§


	2. kidnapping and odd people

**Disclaimer: **I do not and will unfortunately never own The Incredibles. Disney/Pixar owns them. I DO however, own Zacathia and all other previously unknown characters. So there.

Buddy walked down hallway's, with his daughter in a carrier on his back. She was asleep, so he was taking the chance to get some work done. He had been forgetting to do them, so he decided to do them now, seeing as he was remembering them.

Zacathia was away, on a business trip in Europe, or what was left of it. Most of it was a wasteland, after years of wars and over-using the land for farming. Most of the damage was in the Middle East, lower and eastern Europe, along with some of China and Russia. They had been reading up on what had been happening during the time they were asleep, which as close as they could figure was around sixty or seventy years.

Feeling her move shift her position on his back, Buddy stopped moving for a moment, hoping that Marie didn't wake up. He had just started filing some papers that needed to be put away, and he needed his full attention on them to make sure they were put into the right places. Zacathia would kill him if they were put into the wrong places, because that would mean having to re-file everything so that she could find the miss-filed files. Sometimes being married could be so annoying…

Playing with his wedding ring, he smiled. He had married the only girl to ever even look at him kindly, and it was just what he had expected. Demanding, yes, but fun because they understood each other to such an extent that they didn't even have to talk and they knew what they other wanted to get done. They would laugh at things that others thought was stupid because they were that alike in their thoughts, but they were sharply different also.

Frowning, he thought back to what he used to do. No man is an island… he had had that drilled into his skull, and even named his island home after the saying, simply to get back at the man who had shut him down, crushed all his dreams and hopes, all his childhood beliefs. But Zac, she had put her brain to good use, getting herself a name, and a good name at that. She had been the owner of the best guard training facility in most of the world. Now because of her sixty-plus years in stasis, her company was just above average, only just above the norm. But Buddy and Zacathia were quickly bringing the prestige back to the company. Oh yes, they would and could do it.

A guard tapped Buddy on the shoulder, bringing him out of his memories. It was one of the ones unable to speak, so Buddy immediately started to use the basic sign language he knew.

**What?**

**There's someone to see you sir, in C room 4.** Buddy nodded, and put the file he was holding in the proper cabinet. Well, he'd get back to it later.

Following the guard, He went to Conference room four. He hated when the guards didn't know what to do with someone. Then he had to deal with them himself.

Going into the room, he smiled to see his son, Steven. His smile quickly disappeared when he saw the look on Steven's face. His eyes were red, and his face downcast.

"What's wrong?" Buddy asked, concerned. Steven was usually a very happy guy, and the same went for Alex. You rarely saw them apart, which was a big difference from when they were kids and they tried to stay as far apart as they possibly could.

"He's gone. Alex is gone." Steven seemed very distraught about this, and for good reason. Alex didn't go anywhere without Steven knowing, as Alex had severe arthritis. Some people wondered why Alex had it and Steven didn't, not even they knew. Buddy thought that maybe it was because Alex had been into sports and Steven hadn't been when they were younger.

"Where, when?" Buddy asked quietly. He still didn't want to wake up Marie.

"I don't know, I woke up this morning and made some coffee. Alex wasn't up, so I figured he was simply still sleeping but after awhile I realized that Alex never slept in, and he needed to take his medicine so I went to wake him up to find he wasn't in his bed or anywhere in the house." Steve said, on the verge of tears.

"I don't know, he hasn't been here all day the guards would have let him in and told me." Buddy said, worried. This was very strange… "Does Jack-Jack know about this?"

"Yes! He was the first person I called, and he said he'd be on the lookout for Alex." Steven said.

"You can stay here until we find him, if you want." Buddy offered.

"no, I should stay at home in case he shows up." Steven replied, wiping tears off his face.

"I'll send guards out looking for him. Don't worry, we'll find him." Buddy said, leading Steven out.

A few miles away, on a rooftop, a man stood looking at the Virus Industries Building. He smiled, seeing the co-owner leading the elderly man back out of the building, walking down the street with him. He was possibly one of the most powerful supers ever born, but he was also the least known. He had no family, no friends, and no job. He lived alone, surviving off one of his many powers.

"The plan is falling into place, just as we knew it would." He said. No one was around him, but he received an answer anyways. It was from his only weakness, his other personalities.

"_And when we are finished we will be free, in bodies of our own."_

"_Yes, we will be free, free to wreak havoc on the world, and eventually rule it as we were always meant to."_

"_We will rule it. We will rule it with iron fists."_

"_With our iron fists, the worlds leaders will obey us, and do our will."_

Buddy drove to the airport. He had to pick up Zacathia as she was arriving from Spain today. Marie was babbling in the backseat, playing with her blue teddy bear. Smiling, he stopped as a man crossed the street. The man stopped midway and looked at Buddy, he stood there for five minutes before Buddy honked his horn and the man looked away, finishing the crossing and allowing Buddy to go on.

"That was weird." He said to himself, looking up briefly at the man in the rearview mirror. The man was staring at the back of Buddy's car. Buddy quickly turned a corner, glad to get out of the sight of the creepy man.

The rest of the ride was normal, and Buddy completely forgot the man. Zacathia had told him she had brought gifts for everyone, him, Jack-jack, Marie, Steven, and Alex. Hearing that, Buddy had to quickly remind himself that she didn't know, couldn't know, that Alex was missing. He had to tell her, but didn't want to. He'd show up at dinnertime, hungry and wanting food. They'd all find out that he had simply gone out for a walk, wanting a day to himself.

Upon arriving at the complex, Zacathia quickly took Marie and put her to bed. Zacathia gently placed a blanket she had gotten in Spain that she had gotten for Marie.

"Wanna find out what I got for you?" She asked in a singsong voice, swinging a paper bag from her finger. Buddy smiled, probing the bag with his powers to find out if it was electronic. It wasn't, she wasn't that stupid. If it had been he would know what it was in a second. He put on a fake bored face.

"Not really, I'm bored with gifts. I'm going to bed." He said, faking a yawn and a stretch.

"I guess I'll keep it for myself then, or maybe I'll give it to one of the guards." She said, turning away teasingly, placing her hand in the bag and playing with whatever was in it.

"Or you could keep it for yourself." Buddy suggested, closing the door that Zac had been heading for, smiling mischievously.

"You want to see what's inside it?" She asked, looking at him excitedly.

"Maybe." He said, going and holding her by her hips, and pulling her close to him.

"You need to let go of me to open it." She pointed out. Buddy smiled.

"You could open it for me." He said, kissing her cheek.

"I could, but that would ruin the surprise." She said, taking one of his hands and putting the bag in it. It was surprisingly light.

"What's in it?" He asked, intrigued. He pulled the top layer of tissue paper out of it carefully, not wanting to drop whatever was inside the bag. Reaching in, he pulled out a slip of paper. It was black and white, and was hard to make out.

"What is it?" he asked, confused.

"I'm pregnant." She said, smiling. "I just found out." Her smile widened at the look of ecstasy on Buddy's face.

"How long?" He asked. There was so much to do!

"I've known for two days, but the doctor said as far as he can tell I've been pregnant for three weeks." She said, smiling.

"So that would be just before you left." He said, smiling. That had been a good night. She smiled back.

"This is good news, we need good news today." Buddy said, his smile dissipating slightly, remembering Alex.

"What do you mean?" Zac asked.

"Alex went missing today. Steven woke up and found out Alex had left sometime during the night." Buddy explained. "I hadn't wanted to tell you at first, but it just slipped out."

"I'm glad you told me. I'm glad I know, now I can help look." Zac said, kissing Buddy's cheek. He pulled her close against his body, and hugged her tightly. She hugged back, knowing he was worried. She was just glad Mirage wasn't here; it would have been too much for her.


	3. found and lost

**Disclaimer:** I own Zacathia/Zac, Alex, Steven, Marie, the currently nameless villain, and all other unknowns. Everyone else belongs to Disney/Pixar.

**A/N:** Syndrome'sGirl: By the line "She was glad Mirage wasn't here, it would have been too much for her" I meant that Zacathia was glad Mirage wasn't alive to see one of her son's kidnapped. To understand this story fully, you're going to have to read '_Friends Forever'_ the story this one is sequel to.

Zacathia drove down the street, completely ignoring the line of cars trailing behind her. They could pass her if they wanted, she didn't care. They could honk their horns till the cows came home for all she cared, she was more worried about finding Alex. It had been two day's and he still hadn't come home. Steven was near hysterics, and Buddy wasn't far off either.

"Alexander Pine where the hell are you?" She muttered to herself, looking at the street. She noticed a shady-looking man watching her, but didn't pay much attention to him. She wasn't looking for shady-looking people she was looking for Alex.

She jumped as her phone rang. It had the spider-man theme song as a ring, something that still hadn't gone out of style.

"Hello?" She asked, picking it up off the seat beside her.

"Find him yet?" It was Buddy. He called her every ten to fifteen minutes, making sure she didn't forget to tell him if she did find him.

"No, and for the seventh time, stop calling. I won't forget to call if I find him. You calling may actually make me miss him passing me." She pointed out.

"Fine." Buddy said, hanging up. She knew not to get mad at him, he was only worried about his son. It was actually a good thing he was this worried, it meant that he'd be there for his newest children. She had been worried that he would go back to his old ways upon being re-awakened, but so far so good.

She looked outside the window, to see the shady-looking man standing right in front of her stopped car. She had stopped for a red light, and he hadn't finished crossing the street. In fact, he had stopped walking altogether right in front of her vehicle and was staring at her. Zacathia couldn't see his face, it was hidden in shadows from his hood.

Sticking her head out her window, she looked at him madly.

"Get a move on!" She said, annoyed.

"No. You need to talk to me." He said, walking up to her and opening the passenger side door to her car. She looked at him as he sat down and closed the door, just as the light changed green.

"Are you going to go or not?" He asked, waving his hand at the line of cars behind her. "You might want to call your husband, Buddy, and get him to meet you at home." The man finished. Not knowing what to say, She listened to him. He had guts, and she knew nothing about him. For all she knew, he could know where Alex was.

The man who, two days prior had kidnapped Alexander Pine, sat in the plush car thinking to himself.

'I will tell them. The plan will work.'

_You are going to mess up. You always mess up._

_Yes always. You have to be careful._

_Very careful, more careful than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs._

_The plan must work._

'The plan will work.'

_You are unsure._

_Being unsure will be the downfall of the plan._

_You must be sure of the plan._

_Without surety, the plan will fall._

'The plan will work.

The man looked up as the car he was in pulled into a long underground tunnel. It was lit on the sides of the tunnel by little glowing balls of halogen light.

"Buddy will be in the conference room when we get there, if you will follow me." Zacathia said to the man.

"I will follow you." He said, nodding slightly. Zacathia started down the hall, and the man followed Zacathia closely, not wanting to give her a way to escape and leave him lost in the halls. Even though he wouldn't get lost, he never got lost.

"Right in here." She said, opening a door and standing aside to let him in.

"Ladies first." He said, waving his hand to let her go. He wasn't stupid. She shrugged and walked in with him following behind her.

The man walked in after Zacathia, bowing as he entered the room.

_You need not bow_

_this isn't the dojo_

He ignored the voices of his other personalities, coming out of his bow and followed Zacathia to a chair. He didn't sit, rather stood waiting for everyone else to sit. He knew the guards wouldn't, but there was another man standing at the head of the long table, Buddy Pine.

"Sit." The man said to Buddy. Buddy looked cautiously at the man, but sat down anyway. "Tell the guards to leave, what is to be said may not enter ears other than ours." The man said to Buddy, who shook his head.

"The guards can't talk, they won't say anything to anyone." He said. Zacathia touched his arm, and shook her head.

"It's okay Buddy, do what he says." She told him, love in her eye's. He looked back at her lovingly, and waved his hand shortly at the guards, who left through the back door.

"If all is well, I will begin." The man said, getting their attention.

"We're listening." Buddy said, looking at the man.

"What do you know about the disappearance of Alexander Pine?" Zacathia asked worriedly.

"I know much about his disappearance. But I will tell you little, for my own reasons. First things first, I know your names and everything about you. There is little you can tell me about yourselves I do not already know, but you know nothing of me. I will tell you little of myself, also for my own reasons. My name is Jason Multiver, but to some I'm known as Outcast. Do not bother looking my true name up in the city files, for it sin't in there. As my alias suggests, I am known and recognized by few. You will find nothing about me. I have Alexander at a secure facility, and he will reside there until my demands are met." Outcast said, looking blankly at Buddy and Zacathia.

"Jason Multiver... where have I heard that name before?" Buddy mumbled to himself, scratching the stubble that had been growing on his face over the last few day's. He hadn't bothered to shave, too busy trying to find Alex.

Outcast smiled.

_The plan is falling into place_

_Tell them more_

_Yes, so he will remember._

_But first get him alone._

"I will leave now. Do not bother trying to stop me, I will get away." Outcast said, smiling while he walked away. "If you try and follow me it will only do yourself harm." he finished, not looking back at them. He knew Zacathia would listen to him, but Outcast also knew Buddy well enough to know that he would follow him to find out more.

Outcast was out of the complex when he noticed Buddy walking behind him.

"What did I tell you?" Outcast said, stopping and turning around quickly.

"I need to ask you something."

"You already have." Outcast smiled, he loved twisting words around.

"huh?.. Oh. You know what I mean!"

Outcast didn't say anything, simply waited.

"How old are you?" Buddy asked.

"127 years old. It's one of my powers to stay looking this old until I am killed." Outcast said, smiling at the expected look of awe on Buddy's face.

"Did I know you, when I was younger?"

"Which time?"

"The first time."

"Yes."

"I thought so. Why?"

"Your father and stepmother, whom you were living with at the time, were killed in an explosion, caused by gas. You had been in Pre-K at the time and didn't find out until you got home. You were put into foster care until they could find your mother, and I was your foster parent. You had been four at the time." Outcast said.

"Take me to Alex, so that I know he's okay." Buddy asked, worry in his eye's. Outcast recognized it as the same worry he had seen all those years ago...

"If you wish, but you can't talk to him, he's very ill." Outcast said, looking away. "I need you to climb onto my back. It is the only way for you to come with me." Buddy looked skeptically at Outcast, but listened.

Outcast ran away, carrying Buddy piggyback-style, to a hidden complex that no one remembered.

Buddy felt oddly weird. The last time he had seen someone run this fast, it had been one of the Incredibles, Dash. God could that kid run! But he had been no problem with his sisters power, force fields. Still, running at sub-sonic speeds was cool.

They took a lot of turns, probably unneccesary usually. It was probably to disorient Buddy, which it was. Usually he was very good at remembering what way's they went, but he was totally lost now.

Not trusting himself to be able to speak without throwing up, Buddy simply stayed quiet and held on for dear life.

Smiling, Outcast went inside and put the invisi-field back up. He didn't want anyone to find this place, he liked his anonymity. It allowed him to do anything.

Three Days Later

Zacathia lay on her bed, worrying. She hadn't gone out, hadn't sent guards out, and hadn't done anything since Buddy had gone missing. She knew who he was with, she just didn't know where. The tracking device in his shoes weren't being picked up. Which could only mean one of two things, that he had deactivated them, or that Outcast charecter had some sort of powers that blocked the signal.

The only thing that had gotten her out of bed was to go to the bathroom. Otherwise the guards, knowing her worry, brought food to her room.

Steven had come to live in the complex with her, having seen how bad she was doing handling Buddy's disappearance. Yes, he himself had been stricken with worry, but she was borderlining on depression. Not even Mitchell would have known how much she needed Buddy.

Steven smiled at the thought. Mitchell would have been able to bring her out of this. He had been Jack-Jack's advisor, going to him whenever he couldn't figure out what Zacathia would have wanted. He had always been more than happy to help, even till his dying day he was giving Jack-Jack advice.

Once, Steven had asked why Mitchell didn't just use his powers to keep himself alive infinatly, and Mitchell had smiled, answering;

"Because one lifetime is enough for me. Some would give anything for a second one, to redo things, knowing what to, what not to do." It hadn't made sense to him then, but now he did. He'd never want to have to re-live his life. Now he knew why Buddy and Zacathia could get so frustrated at times. They were in the bodies of twenty-five year olds, even though they had been alive for a hundred-plus years.

Steven smiled, walking down the hallway towards Zacathia's room. He needed her to come out of her room, she couldn't just stay there hoping that Buddy would come back, because he most likely wouldn't if she stayed shut up for the rest of her life.

Knocking lightly on the door, he found the door wasn't locked. Steven went in curious. Zacathia never left her bedroom door unlocked. Looking in, he saw that she wasn't even in there. She was gone.

" 'Bout time." He said to himself, smiling.

Zacathia looked at her tracer watch, hoping to see the blip that would show where Buddy was. She knew it wouldn't show, but she still hoped.

"Where are you?" she asked herself, looking at a passing car. She was on the sidewalk, thinking she'd notice something more easily. And she did.

She saw someone fly from one roof to another, using very familiar rocket boots.

"Buddy." She whispered, running towards the building. Using her powers, she flew herself up to the top of the building, landing on the roof. It was very clean for a roof.

Looking around her, she couldn't see anyone.

"I know I saw someone come up here." She said to herself, frowing. She pulled on her computerized sunglasses, and turned on the infa-red scanning. She quickly found what she was looking for. There was someone hiding in the ventilator ducts going into the building. Smiling, she walked over a pulled the grate off it, only to find someone she _didn't_ expect.

"Alex!" She exclaimed, pulling him out. "At least Steven will be happy." she thought to herself, looking at his frail body. He was in bad shape, Outcast hadn't been taking very good care of him, that at least was obvious. Alex had scratches all over his arms, and he was breathing in short gasps.

"I'll get you home." She said to him, even though she knew he was unconcious. Looking up at the sky, a tear fell from her eye. At least that was one down, one still to go.

"Where are you Buddy?" She asked the sky, another tear falling as she looked away and carried Alex away, using her powers to help support his body.


	4. death and reasurrection

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Incredibles. I do own Zacathia/Zac, Buddy/Syndrome, Steven, Alex, Outcast/Jason Mulver, and all other unknowns. So pbblt! You can't use them!

**Writer's Note:** Sorry for the long time for updates, I'm currently in the process of writing like three fanfics (all to do with Syndrome) and I'm spreading my imagination and time a little thin. Thank god for design class!

Buddy watched the screen in horror. Zacathia look awful, he could tell she was worried. Her hair wasn't combed, and he could tell that she had been wearing that outfit for a few days now.

"Let me go! What have I ever done to you?" Buddy shouted at nothing. He was the only person in the room, but he knew Outcast could hear him. Evil supervillians always made sure to be able to hear their captives pathetic cries, it was some sort of unwritten rule.

A tinny voice came out of nowhere. "You ruined my life." Buddy glared at a wall, not sure which one was the one that Outcast was behind. The entire room was made of the glass. Buddy probed for electronics, but was met by a wall.

"Don't bother trying to get out of there with your powers, you won't be able to. This glass was specially made to withstand any super's powers, even the legendary Mr. Incredible." Buddy figured it was Outcast, on a PA system.

"How did I ruin your life? I don't even know you, despite the load of cp you said before." Buddy said, starting to get annoyed.

"Oh, naughty naughty. We can't have that, now can we?" Buddy suddenly felt an immense pressure in his head, as if it was going to explode. He would have held his head, if his hands weren't bolted to the wall. He was forced to simply squirm in pain, before the pain tripled and he started to scream.

"That's better. You're going to listen this time, and good, otherwise you'll have that chip in your head for a very long time, and as I'm going to live forever and I am the only person who can take it out." Buddy could hear the smugness his Outcast's voice. "If you ever want to see your family again, you'll do what I say, and when I say it."

Buddy looked ahead blankly. His family... Zacathia... Marie… he couldn't allow harm to come to them. They were innocent, hadn't done anything to annoy this man. He hadn't either, to his knowledge. But his knowledge of his life was a little blank at some points.

Outcast smiled, knowing what decision Buddy had come to. "Now that's a good little boy. I'm coming in now, so don't try anything." Buddy watched as Outcast seemed to simply walk through the wall ahead of him. He was in that much awe, he momentarily forgot to worry about Zacathia.

"Now. Close your mouth and listen to me. As I said before, you are going to do what I say, when I say it, without question. You will do _exactly_ what I tell you, and not change anything unless it benefits me. I have twenty active missile silos under my control worldwide and I won't even think twice about sending one as a… gift… for your family." Outcast said, snapping his fingers twice. Two guards came forward and put a fabric collar around Buddy's neck.

"This wonderful device is called a training collar. All my guards wear one for the first year or so that they work for me, just so that I know they won't escape. It has a little chip in it that will set off the chip in your brain if you go somewhere you're not supposed to. Don't even bother trying to tamper with it, I made sure that you wouldn't be able to." Outcast said as the guards backed off. "And I don't like your name, Buddy. It's too friendly. You're going to be known as your alias, Syndrome from now on." Outcast finished, pressing a button. Buddy fell to the floor, not liking this one bit.

Syndrome followed Outcast down a hallway. A thin chain attached to the collar on his neck was forcing him to follow behind his captor. He was going through all the different kinds of ways that he could escape. The collar around his neck apparently blocked out his powers, so that threw a major wrench in most of his plans. Most of the plans involved being let out on a mission, but for that to happen, he would have to act like he used to, obsessive and willing to get what he wanted any way possible. He had promised Zacathia that he would never go back to being like that, but this was an extreme circumstance and he needed to think like that.

"Where are you taking me?" He asked, seeing how strong the chain was. His hands were being bound by it, so that he couldn't simply reach up and unhook himself from the collar. His hands were attached to a belt on his waist, and his feet were chained together. To onlookers, it would look like he was a prisoner in one of the old movies.

"That my old friend is none of your business. Yet." Outcast said, looking at Syndrome quickly. Sighing, Syndrome watched his feet. He wasn't getting to not like this more and more.

Zacathia stood behind Steven, who was kneeling next to Alex. Zac had brought Alex back to her complex for care, and so that she could help Steven keep and eye one him. Alex was in and out of consciousness, most of the time out. So she knew he would need the best there was to offer, and the best was currently working for her, in her complex.

"When's he going to wake up?" Steven asked the doctor, who had just walked in the door.

"I'm not sure. I'll have to take a look at him first, but it could simply be shock." The doctor answered, ushering Steven and Zacathia out of the room. He told them that he needed privacy when he was giving someone a check-up. Steven had at first protested, but a quick glance at Zacathia told him to be quiet and do as he was told.

An hour later the doctor came out of the room with a sullen look on his face. "He has a broken wrist, two broken ribs, a sprained knee, and many bruises. It's a miracle that he's still alive. Does he have any powers that you know about?" The doctor asked. "Any normal human being would most likely be comatose right now, but he's not. He's simply falling asleep."

"Asleep? That's it? Otherwise he's okay?" Steven asked, ignoring the doctors question.

"Yes, Um miss? Does he have any powers that you know about? We need to know these things before we start doing anything, so that we know what and what not to do that will interfere with his powers." The doctor asked, turning his attention to the calmer Zacathia.

"Not that I know about, but I haven't known him long. Steven, do you and Alex have powers?" Zacathia asked calmly.

Steven looked up at Zacathia, trying to calm down. He had to remind himself that even though she had been alive longer, he looked like he was older and was acting stupidly. "I don't have any, but I think that Alex does. It isn't one like yours or Dad's, we still haven't figured out what it is yet." Steven said, forgetting not to call Buddy 'dad'.

"Even that little bit of knowledge is useful. But what we really need is to know exactly what his powers are, so we know what we can and can't do." The doctor said. "Until we know exactly what his powers are, we can't do anything that could possibly help him."

Zacathia looked at Steven worriedly. They couldn't let Alex die, but unless they knew his powers that seemed to be what would happen.

**Writer's Note:** I know! It's too short for even my liking, but as I said before, I'm writing like three fanfics at once! I'll try and get this longer ASAP!


	5. friends no more

**Disclaimer:** If Pixar is pissed with me writing fanfics about the Incredibles, they can't sue me. They have to sue themselves for making such cool movies.

**Writer's Note:** I'm going to try and manage my writing better, so that every other day I'll be typing on one of the stories I'm writing. No promises though, and most likely no updates over weekends. My home computer doesn't have the Internet, so the most I'll be able to do is write the chapters, which means a huge update on Mondays! Yay! Still no promises though, as I DO have better things to do than write.

Zacathia sat outside Alex's room, asleep. She hadn't moved from this spot since she had found Alex on the rooftop. It had only been a few hours, but she hadn't eaten either. She kept muttering things in her sleep, like _not Alex, please not him,_ and _Buddy… don't leave me…_ The guards paid no attention to her, knowing that she'd give anything for Buddy to come back. She didn't care about what he did in the past anymore, she simply wanted her babies father back.

A guard walked up to Zacathia, tapping her on the shoulder. She didn't wake up, so he shook her lightly. That woke her up, and she almost jumped up when she did.

**There's something on the TV you'll want to see ma'am.** The guard signed to her. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and nodded.

**Okay, thank you.** She signed back.

**Channel 6 news, you might want to come with me to see it.** She nodded, he was right. The guards usually were. She made sure they were smart, so that if anything happened to her one of them could take over.

She followed the guard, slowly at first but then faster as they got farther away from Alex's room. They turned into the large mess hall where the TV was blasting. It showed a picture of a building, on which two men were standing, both of which seemed strangely familiar.

"The stand-off is still underway, with one of the men holding a large oil tanker over the street below. He is using a sort of blue energy that makes the tanker weightless. The second man is doing nothing at the moment, but reporters say that police are telling all civilians to stay in their houses, that they will handle this themselves. We go live to Marianna Bachinsky who is live at the location of the stand-off." They then changed pictures to a young woman with wavy blonde hair who was holding a microphone.

"Thank you Starr, I am here Live with Colonel Jackson of the local armed forces. Is there anything that we should know about those two men up there?"

"We believe we know the identity of one of them, but we've been told not to release his name as of yet. The other one is a complete unknown. What we do know is that they are both Supers, which could lead to bad things for all of us."

"What are their demands?"

"They have a few, but they said not to reveal them to the public. The unknown one said 'Because it's none of their damn business.' To quote him directly."

"Thank you Colonel Jackson. Back to you Starr." The camera then zoomed in on the two men on the building, and Zacathia felt like the floor had fallen out from underneath her. She turned around, and picked up the phone on the wall and punched in three numbers. That allowed her to make a base-wide announcement.

"All ranking personnel are to report to my office immediately with four of their best officers." She said into the receiver, then slamming it back onto the hook as she stormed out of the room.

"At least now I know where Buddy is." She said to herself.

Zacathia stood in her office in front of a large group of her best officers. She had five ranking officers currently, so she had twenty people in her office. It was a good thing it was a big office.

"I don't know what to say, so I'll simply say this. None of you take any orders from Buddy Pine anymore. Do not tell anyone this, as he is most likely going to try and get some people to leave this complex to join him. You are a select few that will be stationed throughout the base to try and take him down. Your CO's will tell you where you are to go, so all non-ranking personnel please step outside for a moment, I need to say something to them that only they can hear." She said nervously. She didn't want to have to send her entire staff in to take Buddy down, as she didn't want him dead.

Everyone but her five ranking officers left the room obediently.

"What is it ma'am?" One of them asked. They were the only five officers on the base that could talk.

"You five need to come with me." She said. "But first, I want you to split your people into groups of two, and send them to these ten stations on the base." She said, handing them a slip of paper. It had written on it ten key parts of the base that Buddy would most likely try and get people from. "Tell your people to give you a report every four days. I want to exactly when he comes." She said through clenched teeth.

"Yes ma'am!" They all said, saluting her. They took the paper and started talking amongst themselves, putting people they knew worked well together, and keeping people that didn't get along as far away from each other as possible. When they were done, they left momentarily to tell everyone where to go, and then came back for their orders.

"We're going to the stand off." She said, not needing to say anything else. They knew why without asking.

They pulled up in an old ford truck; Zacathia and her officers sitting on the edges of the truck bed dressed in army camo suits. When the truck stopped Zacathia was the only one to jump out, her officers waiting for her order to come out. They didn't even know if they were needed yet. They probably were, but they always thought the worst thing could happen, that way if it did, they were prepared for it.

Zacathia walked up to the man who was ordering people around. He turned around to see who she was, and then saluted her, and she saluted back.

"I've brought my ranking officers to help, and I think I may know the names of both those men up there. I may be able to help bring them down." She said to him. He nodded to her, looking at the state of her men.

Zac looked back at her men and waved them over. They jumped out of the truck bed and walked over to Zacathia, saluting. Zacathia saluted back, along with the colonel.

"We can use all the help we can get." The colonel said, motioning for them all to follow. He lead them into a tent, where there were more important-looking people. Some were dressed in military uniform, some dressed in civilian clothes. There was one person with a white lab coat and geeky glasses.

"Who's she?" The guy in the lab coat asked, adjusting his glasses. Zac thought she recognized him, but ignored the feeling.

"My name is Zacathia. Zac for short. And you are?" She asked, her arms crossed. She looked threatening, especially with her five officers standing behind her. The man obviously thought so too, because he didn't say any smart remarks after that.

"The name's D.J." The scientist replied, extending his arm. Zac smiled and shook it.

"What's it short for?" She asked. Everyone in the tent smiled. Some started to laugh even. D.J. covered his face with his hand, embarrassed to answer.

"Answer the lady DJ." The colonel said, smiling.

"It's none of her business." DJ answered. "We have more important matters to deal with, like th tanker currently suspended in mid-air."

"Yes, I think I know the men up there. One, the guy not doing anything, is called Outcast. The other one is Buddy Pine." Zacathia said, one of her officer's touched her shoulder as she tensed up, holding back the tears.

"Is there a problem?" One of the people asked, looking at her worriedly. Zac shook her head, she was okay. She had to be, for Alex.

"How do you know them?" DJ asked.

"Outcast kidnapped a friend of mine a few day's ago, who I found today. Buddy Pine is my husband and co-worker." Zac replied. No one said anything, most people looked worriedly at each other. DJ was the only person who looked at Zacathia, understanding in his eyes.

"Maybe you can talk him down." DJ said, the first to break the silence. Zac nodded, and started to turn around, but then stopped.

"I think you should know, Buddy and Outcast are both supers. I don't know Outcast's powers, but I do know Buddy's. He has the power to control Electronics. The most I've ever seen him do is electrocute some boys using some batteries from a discman." Zacathia said, and then left.

She went to the base of the building, and looked up. It was an office building, that was to be certain. The large glass windows showed that.

"What are we going to do ma'am?" Her 2IC asked.

"We're going in." She replied.

"If you're going in, I'm coming with you!" Said someone behind them. Zac looked around, to see DJ. He had taken off his glasses and labcoat. Underneath, he was wearing black cargo pants and a camo t-shirt.

"You can't come." She said simply.

"I can help you!" He whined. "I know what I'm doing!"

"How? You don't even know what I'm doing!" She said, pushing him backwards.

"You don't even know what your doing! Plus, I'm not letting someone that's younger than me take on a couple of madmen!" DJ said, pushing her back. "Plus, if he attacks you I can help hold him off."

"My men can hold him off. _I_ could hold him off." Zac said. "I _have_ held him off before, more than once."

"I'm still coming with you, whether you like it or not." He said with his arms crossed defiantly.

Zac could see she was getting nowhere arguing with him, so she simply ignored him and had her men follow her into the building and up the stairs. It was a fairly large building, so they paced themselves. At the same time though, they went up the stairs as fast as they could. It took them fifteen minutes to get up to the rooftop.

The didn't burst out, that could surprise Buddy and cause him to drop the tanker, something they didn't want to happen. Instead, they opened it slowly.

"Well, we were starting to wonder if you'd ever arrive. Oh! And you brought some help along with you, little do you know one of your little helpers has quite the family history." Outcast said, facing her. Buddy couldn't turn around, so he just grinned manically at her.

"Buddy! Put the Oil tanker down! It's okay, Outcast can't do anything to you!" Zac shouted at Buddy. He simply laughed.

"I know that! You think I'd be doing this otherwise? If anything, I'm making him do this!" Buddy laughed, causing the tanker to move up and down a little. "And my name isn't Buddy. It's Syndrome. You of all people should know that!"

"But you said-"

"I was delirious my dear girl! And if you ask nicely, Outcast may let you and dear Marie join up with us, god knows whatever powers she has would be put to good use." Syndrome said happily.

"Buddy! You don't want to do this! We've been friends forever!" Zacathia said to him.

"Well we aren't anymore. Hope your 'friends' down there can run fast!" Syndrome laughed, turning off the energy beam and going to fly away, with Outcast piggybacking.


	6. She's gone

**Disclaimer: **I do not in any way own X-Men or the Incredibles. Pixar owns the Incredibles and DC comics own X-Men, no matter how much I love them both.

**Writer's note:** Ah ha ha! I love writing cliffhangers! When my little sister read the last chapter, She almost strangled me for leaving it at that! lol...

Just a random question here; what type of music do you think Syndrome would listen to? They don't say in the movie and it just occured to me he seems like the type to listen to music. Definitly not country, maybe rock. Tell me your thoughts in your ever-loved reviews!

Zacathia went to run to the edge. She was going to try and stop the fall of the tanker. It wasn't allowed to explode, this was a populated area. She stopped short though, when she saw DJ turn into a blur and run to the edge, jump off the roof onto the tanker, throw it higher into the air, and shoot something at it to cause it to explode. All this happened within half a minute.

She ran down the stairs, her men following close behind her. The only thing going through her mind was _What the hell was that? He's a super?_

When she got down to the ground DJ was standing near the door, brushing himself off. When he saw the look on her face he smiled and walked over to her. "I told you I could help." He smirked. "I'm not only smart you know."

"Do you know how stupid that was? I was going to stop it falling, lower it down onto the ground so that the city DIDN'T loose a whole oil tanker! Do you know how expensive that stuff can be?" Zacathia said to him, angry. She couldn't believe how stupid this guy was!

"Well sorry for trying to help you! And just how were you going to do so?" He asked, his voice matching Zacathia's anger level. Zac smiled malevolently, this was going to be fun. She used her telekinetic powers to lift DJ off the ground, to hover in mid-air. She then used her Telepathic powers to go into his head and say; _You're not the only super around here you know_. He smiled at her, liking her attitude.

"Do not piss me off right now." She spat at him, putting him back down onto the ground and stomping off to the colonel. DJ looked at her guards, who hadn't followed her right away. They were laughing at him! Quietly, mind you, but laughing!

"Brave man to go up against Zacathia." One of them said to him, patting him on his shoulder.

" Especially right now." Another laughed, going off to follow Zacathia. The rest of them simply nodded and laughed as they followed him off.

"What's that supposed to mean?" DJ wondered, following behind them with his hands jammed into his pockets.

Zacathia stood at the back of the room. Everyone who had been there at the oil tanker situation had gone to the nearby army base. Zacathia didn't know why she had to be there, but she had been told by the colonel that they needed her there.

DJ walked in behind her, standing beside her. He was back in the labcoat and glasses. "Colonel says that this is a really important meeting, that they're gonna need all the help they can get." He said to her.

"Cool." She replied, still mad that he had interfered with her plans.

"You can't stay mad at me forever." He whispered to her.

"You really wanna try and find that out?" She sneered at him. They had to cut their conversation short there, because the colonel came into the room, followed by a man Zacathia figured to be a general due to the stars on his shoulders.

"You've all been called here because you either have an army at your command or your one of the best in an army. Right now we need all the help we can get, because the two who had not long ago threatened to blow a portion of the city up have set all hell loose on the rest of the city. They've pulled together a group of supers that believe all non-supers should die."

"Sorta like the brotherhood in that comic 'The X-Men.' " Zacathia said.

"Yes, exactly like that, only twice as bad. Somehow, most of the supers are from seventy or eighty years ago." DJ gasped at this, Zacathia wondered why, maybe he was a Mr. Incredible fan?

"That means-"

"Yes it does DJ."

"Okay, what am I missing here?" Zacathia asked. She didn't like being out of the loop, it didn't happen often.

"You still havent told her DJ?" someone sitting down in the room asked, their voice torn between amusement and annoyance.

"No, not really." DJ replied sheepishly.

"I'll tell her then." The colonel sighed. "DJ here is the grandson of The Dash, that's why he has superpowers."

"My mom was his daughter." DJ muttered embarresedly.

"That explains a lot of my questions." Zacathia said, not really all that surprised at the information. He did look a lot like Dash.

"That's why we were hoping for your help Zacathia. Your the only one alive today that has had experience with them. DJ, I know you want to ask how that's possible, but she'll explain it to you later. You two are possibly the only two supers that those two don't have under their control. We were hoping to use that to our advantage."

"They can't possibly have every single one, there has to be some unknowns." Zacathia said, thinking of Alex. Not even Buddy had known that he had powers.

"Every known one they now have at their disposal, including the ones that had been on our side."

"That's not good."

"No, it isn't. Do you know what any of their weaknesses were?"

"I have files on most of them, but most said nothing about their weaknesses. Frozone can't be around extreme heat, Elastigirl could only be streached so far before it would hurt her, those are the only two I can think of off the top of my head."

"Go back to your complex, take DJ with you. Let him go through those files and see what he can get out of them." The colonel finished. Zacathia and DJ nodded, leaving.

Once they were sitting on a truck bed heading towards Zacathia's complex, DJ decided that now was as good a time as any to ask the question itching to be asked.

"So how do you know most of the supers?" Zacathia laughed, as did the guards sitting around them.

"I may not look it, but myself and Syndrome are both a little over a hundred years old." She said, recieving a dubious look from DJ.

"You want me to prove it? Ask me something that not many people would know about the Dash."

"How old was he when when he went up against the actual Syndrome?"

"Nine or ten."

"Lucky guess. What's his sister's name?"

"Faze, or Violet as a civilian."

"Beginners luck. What was his civilian name?"

"Dash, he couldn't think of a better nickname. His full name was Dashiell Robert Parr."

"Okay, so maybe you know him better than I do. I didn't know that last answer, he wouldn't tell me." DJ blushed. He obviously didn't tell many people that.

"I don't think he really liked his full name. That's what it always what it seemed like to me." Zacathia shrugged.

"You knew him?"

"We met a few times."

"I didn't really ever get to know him, he was alway's busy."

"Makes sense, he was always on the go. What ever happened to him?"

"He died in a fight with a crook when I was fifteen. Mom was crushed, so was Aunt Vi and Nana."

"Did you ever get to meet your great-grandparents?"

"No, they died before I was born."

"They were good people."Zacathia said as they got off the truck to enter the complex. DJ obviously didn't want to stop talking, he was enjoying learning about his family. Zacathia thought it was weird that she knew more about his family then he did. She realized that she wasn't mad at him anymore, she actually liked him.

When they got into a hallway, a guard approached them.

**We tried to stop him, we told him that you would want to see him when he got back but he ordered us to get out of his way.** The guard signed quickly. DJ was confused, why didn't he simply talk? He was even more confused when Zacathia replied in sign.

**Slow down, tell me what happened.** She said calmly.

**It's Mr. Pine ma'am. He's taken her.**

"No, He couldn't have." She said, forgetting everything else as she ran down the halls. DJ stood there momentarily before running off after her. Where the hell did she need to get so quickly?

She ran into Marie's room, finding the door already open. She was gone, he had come and taken her. He truly did have all known supers.

Zacathia's knees hit the floor. Nothing mattered anymore, not DJ, not the city, not the world. She had nothing but a complex, and everything inside it. None of that mattered, not seeing as she had no one to go to when she was really pissed off. Only Marie and Buddy had been able to calm her down. Now she had neither.

Her feelings of hopelessness turned to anger the instant DJ found her. Her body was shaking with fury, and all the guards immediatly told him to back away as they closed the door to seal her in the room. The instant the door was closed he felt the floor shake, and saw the walls were shaking too. The entire complex was shaking.

"What's she doing in there?" He asked the nearest guard that he recognized.

"Mrs. Zacathia has the powers of telepathy and telekinetics. When she's really over-the-top mad at something she starts sending sonic blasts off that destroys everything in their path. The only way something will survive one of her blasts is if they're behind or made of lead, which is why all the rooms of this complex are lead-lined."

"Has this happened often?"

"No, she's usually a pretty happy person. She has, or had, everything she could ever want, or so we all liked to believe. A happy marriage, a healthy child, another one on the way, and enough money to keep them all happy for a very long time."

"She's pregnant? And she just went to try and stop an oil tanker exploding? is she crazy?"

"It's a question everyone who works and lives here asks themselves daily."

The shaking stopped, so one of the guards went up and pressed his ear against the door, listening.

**I think it's okay to go in now** he signed, opening the door a crack. DJ walked forward, pushing the door opened slowly at first, then faster as he saw she had collapsed.

"Not again..." The guard DJ had been talking to sighed. "This happens every time she sends off sonic blasts. She'll be waking up in a few minutes, she just used up all her energy." He explained. DJ completely understood, he simply sat there, leaning over her, making sure she wasn't hurt.


	7. creepy stares

**Disclaimer:** I do not own The Incredibles, or any affiliated characters. The only characters I own are the ones that have not appeared in the movie. And if they do, I still own them. I thought of them first. So there.

**Writer's Note:** Please forgive me if this chapter sucks royally, I'm suffering writer's block on this story. I'll try and make it as long and as good as I can possibly write it, but no promises. I can only try, and you can only hope. And sorry for the long wait for the update!

Syndrome sat at a long metal table, reminding him of the day before he had first gone into stasis. He had sat at the head of an almost identical table, only that one had been much shorter, and had less people standing and sitting around it.

Syndrome looked at the collection of people around the table. It was every known super ever known. They had all been dead before, but Outcast had done something to bring them all back. Even the one's Syndrome himself had killed. None of them remembered that though, Outcast had wiped their memories so that they'd do anything that he told them to do.

That was how Syndrome's only daughter was sitting beside him, he had gotten Mitchell to make her sixteen years old, and had Lisa give her memories that would make Marie hate her mother. Among the supers sitting around the table were The Incredibles (all of them, including the recently deceased Jack-Jack), All of Syndromes old school friends, Frozone, Gamma Jack, and Blazestone. None of them acted like they used to, they acted more like human robots, doing exactly as they were told in the most efficient way possible. and everyone was in there late twenties or early thirties. It was a very weird sight to someone who had met all of them.

Outcast walked in, looking very important. He was important, he was the one running this thing. Syndrome didn't like not being in charge, but he could stand it for a while. Outcast was a good leader, he had been right about things so far.

"They've made their move, now it's time for us to attack their queen. But it must be a calculated move. We have all our power players, they have a queen, a bishop, and some pawns. Their king has castled and all their pieces are protecting him. To get the kind we must go through the queen. Move out people, you know what to do." Outcast said. Syndrome figured that Outcast liked chess, from the way he talked.

"Who's the queen?" Marie asked, looking loyally at Outcast.

"Good question. Their queen is Zacathia, your mother. She knows the most about what's going on." Outcast replied. "Any more questions?" He looked around the table, seeing nothing but shaking heads.

Outcast turned and left the room. Syndrome got up and followed him, he wasn't needed yet, the supers could get things moving on their own. Marie followed behind, not liking the blank stares the supers gave.

She ran up to Syndrome's side, holding onto his elbow and resting her head on his shoulder as they walked.

"Why do we have to have all these supers working for us?" She asked him. He smiled at her.

"I don't like it either, but it's necessary. It's to make sure that nothing goes wrong." Syndrome explained

"They're so weird though! They just sit there staring at you." She shuddered. Syndrome laughed.

"Just tell them to quit staring at you then." He said. Marie rolled her eyes and pushed Syndrome playfully into the wall. Syndrome raised his eyebrow, looking at her playfully.

"Don't you dare." She said, pointing at him and backing down the hallway. Syndrome ran at her, and she turned to run. Syndrome was faster though, and he ran and picked her up. He flung her over his shoulder.

"Put me down!" She squealed, pounding her fists against his back. He simply laughed and continued walking down the hall with her flung over his shoulder.

Zacathia woke up to see DJ leaning over her, worry on his face. She sat up, knowing full well what had happened, so she didn't bother asking.

"I'll kill him." was the first thing out of her mouth as she stood up.

"Whoa, cool your jets. You can't kill anyone, it's against the law." DJ said, trying to calm her down. She pushed him aside, and stormed out of the room. All the guards moved out of her way as she approached. DJ briefly wondered if they were doing it from their own free will, or if Zacathia was forcing them to do it with her powers. She ignored his statement, simply continued down the hall.

DJ ran up to her, jumping in front of her.

"You can't do anything, not yet. Remember? Syndrome has every known super under his control. You can't simply walk up to wherever he is and kill him, he'll have god knows what waiting for you." DJ said, looking into her eyes. He knew somewhere in there he was getting through to her. He took his glasses off and stuck them in the front pocket of his lab coat. He looked into her eyes, and all he could see was someone that wanted the love of their life back. A lovesick girl that couldn't think of anything that she could do to help fix the problem.

"I'll kill him." She cried, her eyes lined with tears. DJ pulled her close to him and she cried into his shoulder willingly, wrapping her arms around his neck. At first he was overwhelmed, no girl had ever treated him this openly before. Except his Aunt Vi, but she didn't count as she was a relative.

"You can kill him, but let's make a plan to get you close enough to do so." DJ said to her, holding her. He remembered the guards, but ignored them. Let them watch. Zac needed comforting, and as they refused to do it, he was the only one left.

Zacathia pulled away from DJ, wiping her eyes. DJ realized that his shoulder was wet from her crying, but he ignored that too. She laughed, noticing it too.

"Lets get you to that computer." She said, leading him down a hallway. They walked in silence, neither of them knowing what to say, but thousands of things racing through their heads.

_How could I do that? She's married!_ DJ screamed at himself. _Stupid, stupid, stupid! Not even grandad would have tried to get with a married woman!_ He continued, pulling his glasses out of his pocket and playing with them. _But she needed comfort, that's all I was doing, comforting._ He told himself. _You were enjoying it too much for it to be ONLY comforting her._

Zacathia was going through a similar process. Only she was literally beating herself up, with her powers. The only problem was that DJ couldn't see because she was so good at masking it.

_Can't be interested in him, you're married! Buddy's sweet, kind, loving, and he understands you better than anyone else, and he's known you longer than anyone alive!_ She told herself, a new bruise appearing on her side. _But Buddy said we aren't friends anymore, doesn't that put me on the market?_ she wondered, then started playing with the wedding ring on her finger. It was a simple ring, a gold band with a small diamond embedded in it. It wasn't an expensive thing, a simple ring that almost anyone could afford. But she loved it and wouldn't ever dream of parting with it. _No matter what he says, you can't leave him! He's simply under some spell by Outcast. You can't think of DJ that way!_ A bruise appeared on her exposed upper arm.

DJ noticed the bruise appear out of nowhere, and he stopped her moving.

"Where did that come from?" He asked, pointing it out. She blushed, shaking her head.

"Nowhere, it's always been there." She muttered, turning and continuing down the hallway. But she pulled her sleeves back down, covering any more bruises she made appear.

Marie had given up punching and screaming. She had given up with trying to get out of her father's grip. He wasn't putting her down until he wanted to.

"Daddy! Put me down!" She sighed, bored. He was treating her like she was two, which she wasn't. "I'm sixteen years old, I can walk believe it or not."

"You could be seventy-two for all I care." He said. She didn't know where he was taking her, all she knew was that she was getting really bored with this. She wished she had more useful powers, the only useful one she had was the ability to block other peoples powers, making them temporarily normal. Her other powers, the ability to make people feel happy when they don't want to and the ability to know who's a super and who isn't, weren't all that useful. They were downright useless.

"Well I'm not seventy-two, and I'm not a baby anymore dad. If you want to treat me like one why don't you just get Mitchell to change me into one?" She said to him. It was the only thing that Syndrome didn't know how to respond to. Marie hadn't figured out why, but she had her suspicions.

Syndrome put Marie down, and continued walking. He didn't look back, instead he turned into a workroom, then closed and locked the door. Marie rubbed her elbow, he hadn't ever dropped her that hard before. What was his problem? Maybe just a bad day.

**Writer's Note:** I'll try and get the next chapters up faster. Sorry for it being so short, but I'm running out of ideas for things to happen. I might end up simply sticking an end together and putting it up.


	8. lost and found

**Disclaimer: **The Incredibles are not mine. They are property of Pixar Animation studios.

Syndrome slumped in his chair, feeling guilty about what he had done to Marie. He had shortened her life by sixteen years, what right did he have to do that? And she didn't know a thing about it. He hated having a conscience, it got in the way so much.

He looked at the files of the supers that were now under his control. He had copied it when he had gone to pick up Marie. They were what had allowed Outcast to clone all the supers in the first place. They had every single little detail that Zacathia had been able to find about the supers. Some even had little details of how some had died. Only ever little details because some had died in ways no one should ever visualize. Like he himself, he had almost died by getting shredded in a jet turbine. He had gotten lucky and been able to walk away without a scratch.

Syndrome briefly wondered why he was here; he should be with Zacathia, not with Outcast. She was probably worried sick, but he had to keep this charade up. It was for her own safety.

But was it a charade? He had been willing to drop that oil tanker on the city, he had actually tried to, but it obviously hadn't hit. It did explode, he knew that much. He had heard it explode while he flew away. That guy she had been with must have done something, he knew Zacathia too well to even think for a second that she'd let something explode.

Syndrome started playing with the collar Outcast had around his neck. He hated it because it allowed Outcast to play with his thoughts and make him do and say things that he normally would never even think of doing. He wasn't able to take it off; Outcast had said that doing that would jeopardize his family's life.

That was why he had gone and taken Marie, so that he could protect her. He wished he could do the same for Zac, but she would never agree to join up with the bad guys. He hoped that she'd figure everything out and not get mad at him, but he knew that was unlikely. And there wasn't any way for him to leave her clues to figure out what was going on, Outcast would find out.

He cursed the situation he was in, between two tides of monumental force. Outcast going one way, trying to get rid of all non-supers, and Zacathia going the other, trying to save the humans. He wanted to be on one side, but was forced onto the other. It was like snowboarding with your eyes closed. Eventually, you're going to hit something and get hurt.

All the money and technology in the world couldn't help him out of this situation. Not even Mirage would have been able to find a way out of this one. He had been unknowingly digging his own grave deeper and deeper until he couldn't get out. And now he had pulled Marie in with him.

Marie walked into the room, looking confused. Syndrome wondered why, and then remembered that he had simply dropped her, not taking the time to make sure she landed softly.

"Daddy? Is something wrong?" She asked, staying by the door.

"No, everything's alright." He replied, looking up at her. He had been holding his head in his hands, leaning on the desk in front of him.

"Everything isn't alright and you know it. Something wrong, you're just not telling me." Marie said, walking over to him and sitting on her knees on the floor next to him.

"Marie, even if you wanted to you couldn't help me out of this one." Syndrome said to her, sighing.

"I could try."

"No, you can't. I won't let anything happen to you. Go to your room, get some sleep." He said to her, putting on a fake smile. She didn't buy it, but she left anyways. Maybe Outcast could tell her what was going on.

She left, and walked down the hall. When she should have turned left to go to her room, she simply continued on towards Outcast's room. He knew everything; he would know what was wrong with her father.

She knocked on the door, hoping he was there.

"What?" She heard him call from inside. He sounded busy.

"I need to talk to you." She replied nervously.

"Can it wait until later?" He asked.

"I don't know, it has to do with my dad." She replied. She heard a flurry of movement, and then the door opened. She found that Outcast had covered many of his things in large white blankets, so that she couldn't see what he was doing.

"What is it?" He asked, sounding nicer now that the door was open.

"He seems worried, preoccupied. I know something's wrong, but he won't tell me what." She said as she was lead into the room and sat down in a chair.

"Does he now? That's interesting, very interesting. He shouldn't be, should he? I'm taking care of everything in this operation, he has nothing to be worried about. Maybe it's something else? Yes. That has to be it. Thank you for telling me Marie, I'll get right on this, just as soon as I finish something else that needs my immediate attention." Outcast said, smiling. It was a very creepy smile, sending shivers down Marie's spine.

"Okay, thank you. I don't want him to be worried over something that he shouldn't be." Marie said, getting up and leaving. As soon as she was out of the room, the door closed behind her. She pressed her ear up against the door. She wanted to know what Outcast did in there, he spent a lot of time alone and that couldn't be healthy for someone.

Listening, she heard that he was talking to himself.

"He's trying to escape."

"He can't escape, we've made sure of that."

"He is a smart man, he will find a way eventually."

"If he was trying to escape we would know it."

" If he really is as smart as his file says he could find a way around it."

"But his file also says he lost his memory once and never fully got it back."

"We must do something to check."

"Yes, we must check."

Marie wondered why he was arguing with himself, was he going crazy? If so, she would have to do something about it. But what could she do?

Zacathia logged onto the computer, and opened up the files on the supers. She had made these particular ones herself in her spare time.

"Here, that should be all the known supers." She said, moving aside so that DJ could read them.

"Thanks. This might take me a little while, there seems to be quite a few of them." He said, smiling. "And it also looks like these files are very detailed." He said, causing Zacathia to blush.

"I'll just leave you to it then." She said, leaving. She had other things to do in the complex, she had to get an army together.

She walked over to the intercom, pressing the button that made it go everywhere in the complex, even in the bathroom stalls.

"All personnel are to go to the secondary gymnasium." She said. DJ gave her a skeptical look.

"You have a secondary gymnasium?" He asked, one of his eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, the primary one's taken up by gym equipment." She said, smiling.

Zacathia stood on the stage of the secondary gymnasium, with her entire personnel slowly filing in. The place was remarkably quiet for a gym, but that was because most of her staff couldn't talk.

Everyone in the complex had filed in, and turned their attention to Zacathia. She simply stood there, knowing that this wasn't it. There was some people still in the halls, not wanting to come in. When they came in, knowing they were caught, she started.

"You've all seen it on the news by now, but I had hoped that what we're all thinking was a mistake. Now I know that it isn't, and I have only one choice: to send an attack on Syndrome and everyone in the complex he resides in.

You're all probably wondering where it is, and so am I. If any of you have any idea's, let them be said now because any little spine-tingle as to where they are would be greatly appreciated." She paused to see if anyone was going to come forward, but no one did. Just as she had suspected they wouldn't.

"Okay then, here's what we are going to do. As none of you have no idea where Syndrome's hiding out, I'm going send everyone in this complex out on patrol, combing through the city until we find him. Yes, I can do that. This is a serious problem and the military would be more than happy to help out if the end result was finding where Syndrome is." She said, knowing someone was going to eventually ask that.

One of her ranking officers stepped forward.

"Ma'am, I have been informed combing the city would be unnecessary, because I have just been informed that the military has found the location of Syndrome's base and are requesting you send everyone you can to those coordinates. He says that I am to give them to you in person, in private." He said. Zacathia nodded.

"Everyone is to stay in here, I'll be back in a minute." She jumped off the stage and followed the man out into the empty hallway. He handed her a slip of paper, on it had a set of coordinates on it and a message:

_We're being watched. Don't act as if you know._

She nodded, and walked back into the gym.

"Okay everyone," She shouted. "Everyone is to go to there CO, and follow their orders. They will tell you where to go." She said, handing the slip of paper back to the man.

"Make sure the other four see this paper, and only them." She whispered to him. He nodded, and ran off. She sighed.

"This is going to be a long day." She groaned as a group of special force soldiers walked up to her, awaiting her orders.

**Writer's Note:** I might not have something to post on Monday, because its my birthday Sunday and my family might be doing something with me Saturday and then possibly visiting my nanny on Sunday. Not sure, cause my family isn't that organized and doesn't plan ahead very often. I'll try and get something together though to post.


	9. Authors Note 2

Just thought to post this and tell everyone that I'm not going to be able to update for a little while. I lost the disk holding all the chapters for the two Incredibles Fanfics I'm writing. I will update again eventually, but It's going to be a little while. I need to get all the chapters back onto a disk so that I can look back to them at home (I don't have the internet at home).

Thank you for your patience, and all your ever-loved reviews so far! I'll try and get the next few chapters to you ASAP!

§¤ Gremblin ¤§


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